Little Max attends storytime in the library and then goes to the shelf to find a book. What he finds instead is an egg that shakes itself open and hatches a dragon. When he tries to report it, mom, dad, the head librarian and his teacher all chalk it up to his imagination. Finally, he persuades Officer Riley to investigate the ever-growing dragon, which munches on books with a crunch, crunch refrain. They find the entire town staring in amazement at the large, multicolored dragon. It’s no longer a case of a dragon in the library—it’s “a library in the dragon!” The dragon's refrain holds a promise for an entertaining tale when first encountered. Alas, it pales in repetition. The text is otherwise pedestrian and lacks imagination, and the illustrations, though colorful, are uninspired and feature stiff, sometimes scary facial expressions. And the poor dragon? He should sue the costume and make-up department. Even a page of tips on caring for books can’t save this effort: Don’t check it out. (Picture book. 4-7)
